Koei Tecmo president wants a Super Mario or Star Wars Dynasty Warriors game

In recent interviews, Koei Tecmo’s president reiterated his dreams of working with either the Super Mario or Star Wars franchises.

Dynasty Warriors (aka Musou) games always seem to be at their best when the formula is applied to other franchises, with the recent Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity and Persona 5 Strikers both being notably better than the original Musou titles.

So, it’s no surprise that Koei Tecmo’s president, Hisashi Koinuma, would love to work on similar projects. In fact, there are two franchises in particular he’d like to turn into Musou games: Super Mario and Star Wars.

In an interview with TheGamer, which is mostly about the upcoming Samurai Warriors 5, Koinuma was asked which franchises he’d personally love to work with.

‘Mario and Star Wars are two great series that come to mind. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the opportunity to collaborate with these IP yet,’ he said.

In a separate interview with JP Games, when asked the same question, he admitted that he wasn’t sure how he would translate the Mario series into a Musou game.

‘While I don’t have any ideas on how to make this a reality, I think Mario would be my pick.’

Koei Tecmo and Nintendo already have a solid working relationship, having collaborated on two Hyrule Warriors games and Fire Emblem Warriors. Although, it is hard to imagine a character like Mario leading an army of Toads, capturing forts and the like in a wartime setting.

But then who would have imagined an XCOM inspired turn-based strategy that was also a crossover with Raving Rabbids – and which turned out to be really good?

The proposed Mario Musou game wouldn’t necessarily have to be a one-to-one translation, however. Persona 5 Strikers may have had Dynasty Warriors style combat, but it lacked many of the series’ usual traits like ally armies and bases, and was more so a Persona 5 sequel than a Musou game.

Star Wars, however, would be a perfect fit (it already has war in the name) and the idea of letting players take control of a Jedi and mow down armies with their lightsaber in over-the-top action is certainly appealing.

This isn’t the first time Koinuma has suggested the possibility either. In a 2014 interview with Eurogamer, both he and Akihiro Suzuki, the head of Omega Force (the studio that develops the Musou games) shared a mutual desire to work on Star Wars.

‘Without any restrictions or anything, the ideal dream would be to work on Star Wars.’

At the time, the Clone Wars animated TV show had aired its sixth, and final, season (before it was revived and got a proper final season for Disney+). Set between Episodes 2 and 3, it would be the perfect era for a Musou game to take place in, since the Jedi were still thriving and the clone and droid armies provided plenty of cannon fodder.

With the Lucasfilm Games brand back and publishers besides EA now able to make Star Wars games, the odds of a Star Wars Warriors is more likely now than they were in 2014. So maybe at least one of Koinuma’s dreams will come true.

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